Delay of gratification tasks have an impressive predictive value for various outcomes and are designed to measure self-regulation. Since many behavioural and psychological conditions in children are related to limitations in self-regulation, the extent to which delay tasks can be used as a screening for the detection of psychopathology is…

The present longitudinal study aims at investigating the interplay between child temperament, mother-child interaction quality and child Theory of Mind (ToM) at preschool age with regard to the development of child problem behavior at school age in 115 participants. Maternal sensitivity and child temperament were assessed when children were 4…

It is well established that children lie in different social contexts for various purposes from the age of 2 years. Surprisingly, little is known about whether very young children will spontaneously lie for personal gain, how self-benefiting lies emerge, and what cognitive factors affect the emergence of self-benefiting lies. To bridge this gap in…

The study examines the concurrent and longitudinal associations between ratings-based measures (parents, secondary caregivers, and observers) and performance-based measures of focused attention in toddlers aged 30 (n = 147), 36 (n = 127), and 42 months (n = 107). Parents and secondary caregivers rated focused attention behaviours using the…

Moral stories are a means of communicating the consequences of our actions and emphasizing virtuous behaviour, such as honesty. However, the effect of these stories on children's lie-telling has yet to be thoroughly explored. The current study investigated the influence of moral stories on children's willingness to lie for another individual.…

Learning to behave in socially competent ways is an essential component of children's development. This study examined the relations between children's social, communicative, and cognitive skills and their behaviours during a cooperative task, as well as how these relationships change at different ages. Early school-age (5-8 years old) and middle…

It is argued that self-regulation skill is necessary both for displaying constructive behaviour and for controlling negative social behaviour, and self-regulation might affect social behaviours by increasing the ability to understand others' minds. In this research, in order to examine different aspects of self-regulation and their similarities…

The influence of a model's age on young children's behaviour has been a subject of considerable debate among developmental theorists. Despite the recent surge of interest, controversy remains about the nature of peer influence in early life. This article reviews studies that investigated the influence of a model's age on young…

The current study examined concurrent and longitudinal relations between maternal negative affective behaviour and child negative emotional expression in preschool age children with (n=96) or without (n=126) an early developmental risk, as well as the predictions of later behaviour problems. Maternal negative affective behaviour, child…

Children's understanding of the cardinal significance of counting is often assessed by the "give x" task, in which they are categorized as "counters" or "grabbers". Previous research indicates a sudden stage-like shift, implying insight into a principle. Employing a microgenetic approach, the present study was…

This study demonstrates the potential utility of the Behavioural Style Observational System (BSOS) as a new observational measure of children's behavioural style. The BSOS is an objective, short and easy to use measure that can be readily adapted to a variety of home and laboratory situations. In the present study, 160 mother-child dyads from the…

Behavioural sleep problems (childhood insomnias) can cause distress for both parents and children. This paper reports a model describing predictors of high sleep problem scores in a representative population-based random sample survey of non-Aboriginal singleton children born in 1995 and 1996 (1085 girls and 1129 boys) in Western Australia.…